We saw the last of the sun on Monday evening as it dipped behind the mountains of the Ao Po anchorage, creating another stunning sunset, but it has rained almost continuously since. Torrential downpours and howling winds, coupled with a washing machine sea state, caused by winds out of the northwest and a swell out of the northeast, have been our companions these past few days, although a number of other yachts arrived in the anchorage in the interim, seeking refuge from the storms after leaving other anchorages which became untenable, so we can’t complain too much!

Under overcast skies on Tuesday morning, before the rain set back in, Roy was able to dinghy ashore and collect a few more of our delivered purchases from the marina office, including a new head torch, spare spark plugs for the dinghy, a new hand pump and a spare, to be sure, to be sure, as well as a few new tools after the others broke or simply disintegrated.

Regardless of the weather, we also managed to get a few more items completed on our never-ending Yacht Tasks List, including removing the last of the water from the engine compartments, given that our new hand pump had arrived, replenishing the dinghy fuel and completing some tasks required for the lithium battery solution, including cutting the stainless steel rods to size, drilling the required holes in the aluminium plates and tapping them.

While Roy was busy with all of that, Elaine continued her efforts on collating the Action List of all the activities required for our departure from Thailand, including all the Pre-Arrival officialdom activities required for each of our planned destinations and sent corresponding emails to the agent in the Maldives, the Port Captain in La ReUnion and our weather router in South Africa.

With some respite from the rain overnight on Tuesday night, we woke to another gloomy day yesterday morning with more rain that continued all day; it seems we return to Ao Po just to fill our water containers! Roy thought he’d got a gap in the weather to drop off the garbage and book the hired car, but got absolutely drenched on his return walk. Receiving photographs from Keenan of the twins enjoying the Autumn Harvest Farmer’s Market certainly added a dash of sunshine to our day, though.

However, while we spent the stormy afternoon watching movies, the Phuket Vegetarian Festival got underway, albeit a subdued affair compared to past years. In keeping with traditional, though, the various shrines raised the “Go Teng” poles in the pouring rain, welcoming the Jade Emperor and the Nine Emperor Gods to descend from the heavens.

The poles, tall slender trees, gilded with gold-coloured paper, were all raised at the auspicious time of 1709, indicating that the nine-day festival was quietly underway.

Due to the tight COVID-19 restrictions in force this year, though, which limits the number of people taking part in the ceremonies, it also requires that the “Ma Song” spirit mediums participating in the street processions must travel by vehicle, instead of walking the routes along the streets of Phuket Town. Also, they are to refrain from “performing miracles”, such as fire-walking and bladed-ladder climbing. Additionally, the administrators of the Jui Tui Shrine have requested that the stalls which usually sell food and other items along Ranong Road, do not do so this year.

While all these restrictions preclude us from participating, it is, nonetheless, another aspect of the Thai culture we’re being exposed to, in this instance, a Chinese Buddhist custom.

Back in our world, we had a wild and woolly night as the rain continued unabated last night, with bullets of wind associated with the various storms coming from all directions, putting us on a leeshore at times and leaving us both sleep deprived by this morning. So, after breakfast, we both went straight back to bed, waking around noon.

Feeling refreshed, Elaine completed her preparation for her upcoming specialist visit, including taking stock of all her medications and supplements we have onboard, as she finishes these first before incurring the cost of replenishing them unnecessarily. We also printed our finalised Indian Ocean Crossing Notes, Action List and some documentation Roy needed for the lithium battery solution, as well as completed another small task on our Yacht Task List; disinfect the dustbin enclosure and replace the bungee which keeps the dustbin in place, since this too had simply disintegrated.

However, to provide an idea of the heavy downpours we’ve endured these past few days, the Thai Meteorological Department, not only confirmed that the soaking conditions are expected to continue into next week, but that more than 34mm of rainfall was dumped on Phuket Town in the past week, with more than half of that soaking the town in just a three-hour period yesterday, while other areas of the island have experienced even heavier deluges. Now is not the time to visit Thailand! Clearly!